Doing The Milk Run

Here’s a gentle story of a truck driver who lives in a world almost completely beyond our experiences in Australia. This driver works in the fjords of Norway, going from farm to farm collecting milk into his truck and dog tanker set-up.

Like here is harsh with the short days of the frozen North in the winter meaning his working day will start in the dark and end in the dark. The truck weaves its way though small farm tracks to the small dairy farms dotted along the fjord.

He is also driving a full size line haul cabbed truck on a local delivery run. A truck like this would be considered overkill, here in Australia. It’s also got 580 hp under the hood, quite a lot to pull just 29,000 litres of milk.

It is all so alien to us, the environment, the equipment used, the climate, the incredible scenery and the barge to get back to the big city, Bergen, to unload the milk.

At the same time it is all very familiar. Drivers hauling milk in Australia would recognise a lot of the process, going into the dairy, sniffing the milk to check its OK. Then fitting the pump on the truck onto the tank and commencing to load up with milk. The test samples have to be made and then taken back to the milk facility for testing before unloading into the bottling supply.

The multi-generational element to the milk hauling business, with his grandfather and father starting in the milk game back in 1967 and the family carrying on the tradition.

Then there’s the fact he passed his truck test on his birthday and went out and did his first load that afternoon. There are plenty of people working in the industry here who were also champing at the bit to get to drive the big trucks.

If there is one thing, above all, which shines through in this video, it’s his passion. He has a passion for the job, for his truck, for his community and the farmers he collects from. It shines through in the way he talks so matter of factly about the work.